Nico Robin Vs Blake Belladonna
From the shadows of their past to the light of their present Intro Wiz: Fiction is often driven by the concept of a team. A concept dating even earlier than the Three Musketeers, bands of brethren have fought alongside each other powered by coordination, trust, and above all else, friendship. Boomstick: The best teams, and friends, are all-inclusive. Even if you come from a very dark past, and have become a very dark person, you can find that even your heart can be touched by new friends who will die for you. Wiz: Nico Robin, Demon Child of Ohara and archeologist of the Straw Hat Pirates. Boomstick: And Blake Belladonna, Faunus Huntress and factotum of Team RWBY. He's Wiz, and I'm Boomstick Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armour, and skills, in order to find out would would win... a Death Battle Nico Robin Wiz: Years ago, on the Island of Ohara in the West Blue, a group of archeologists was intensely studying the past in order to change the future. They had been doing so for over a thousand years, passing on their discoveries to the next generation as they tried to uncover the secrets of the Poneglyph, a massive stone containing the writings of a long-dead language. Among these scholars was Nico Robin, a young girl who considered them her only family. Boomstick: Robin never knew her father, and her mother had abandoned her shortly after birth, leaving the island to pursue knowledge. She was left to grow up with an abusive aunt and uncle, as well as pretty much everyone on the island utterly despising her. Even kids. Since the local library was the only place she could go to for peace and happiness, she spent her entire early life reading, and gaining a humbler for knowledge about the past. Wiz: During this time, she managed to learn to read the Poneglyph, shocking the scholars beyond belief; doing so, she had put her life in danger. Boomstick: Turns out, these stones contained records for a shit ton of dangerous stuff, like three super weapons, and the history of a kingdom wiped out long ago. The World Government, paranoid about that information getting loose, had outlawed all research on the subject, and upon figuring out what Ohara was up to, sent in the big guns to investigate. Wiz: The resulting Buster Call invasion completely destroyed the entire island; the archeologists were summarily executed, and even the citizens who weren’t scholars were all killed as a safeguard against even one person with the knowledge of the Poneglyphs from escaping. After a tearful first and last meeting with her mother, Robin did manage to flee Ohara with the help of a giant, and a Marine who wished to see her full potential. With no home, no friends, and no family to go back to, Robin set out alone into the world. Because of her ability to read the dead writings, the Government placed a massive bounty on her head and declared her very existence a sin. Thus, Nico Robin became known to the world as the “Demon of Ohara”... at the age of eight. Boomstick: God damn. I got fined $1000 for a shotgun incident when I was eight, but I didn’t have the whole world go after me! Wiz: Rumours spread far and wide that Robin, despite her age, was planning to resurrect one of the ancient weapons to destroy the world, and had sunk six battleships while doing so. She fought and ran for the next twenty years, joining and betraying several criminal organizations in order to keep herself alive. But everything changed when she met the Straw Hat Pirates, led by the imfamous Monkey D. Luffy. Boomstick: After they trounced a pirate Warlord Robin was working for, she invited herself onto the crew stating she had nowhere else to go. Even after seemingly betraying and abandoning her newfound friends in order to save their lives, they marched right after her and declared war on the World Government as a sign of their unwavering allegiance to her. Robin finally had a home. Wiz: In spite of being mostly innocent of what crimes she’s convicted of, Robin does indeed possess demonic power in the form of her Devil Fruit, a foul-tasting fruit with mysterious origin and properties which grants its user unique and formidable abilities. Hundreds are known to exist, but they are mostly concentrated in the Grand Line and New World, and are rare to the point of myth where Robin grew up. Her unique abilities were what first set her aside as a social outcast. Boomstick: Robin has the powers of the Hana Hana No Mi, or the Flower Flower Fruit. You may think she just has the ability to create and control flowers, but no, what she can do is much, much, MUCH more creepy. And, dare I say, useful. Wiz: Nico Robin can spawn multiple copies of her limbs from any surface around her, as if they were sprouting like a flower. And when I say any surface, I mean it. She can grow spare parts from stone, grass, wood, and even human flesh; any solid surface provided she knows where it is. Her ability to spawn thousands of limbs and control them all at once gives her absolutely immense attacking range and battlefield control. Not only can she limit the mobility of nearly any foe, she can also attach her hands to enemy weapons to help guide them and dodge attacks. Boomstick: Extra arms and hands are Robin’s go-to move, and the uses are too many to list. She can retrieve faraway objects, hold a shit ton of guns, create conveyer belts, brace for attacks, but most importantly, break every bone in a person’s body by snapping them into submission. Wiz: By spawning arms off of her enemy’s body, she can snap a person’s neck, break their back, crack their jaw, or turn their own weapons against them, all without having to move. Boomstick: No attack is off-limits for her; she can choose to tickle someone to death, or instead crush their... ow... that looks too painful for me to even describe... ow. Ow. Wiz: Robin can also stack multiple limbs on top of each other, merging them into giant objects. Through the use of one hundred extra hands, she can grow a pair of wings allowing her to briefly fly, nets to catch falling allies, staircases, and even mesh shields that can defend against powerful attacks. Or, by spawning ten times more, she can create arms and legs larger than those of giants to stomp down on her enemies. With so many techniques at her disposal, one move is generally enough for her to eliminate an entire army. Boomstick: I wouldn’t mind being crushed under those legs. Do you think she can grow extra copies of her... Wiz: Yes, she can. She will also likely kill you if you asked. Boomstick: Robin’s power allows her to do much more than subdue you in a thousand different ways. She can spawn eyes and ears to spy on anything she gets suspicious of, and eliminate the stealth of opponents by seeing everywhere on the battlefield at once. After two years of intensive training, she even learned how to generate full-body clones... which sadly retain their clothes. The clones are fully functional and capable of movement, which can fool anyone who thinks they have her trapped. Wiz: Anything Robin feels with her extra limbs, she feels on her main body. This includes the texture of objects, the strain of lifting, and any damage they may take from attacks. Thus, for Robin’s abilities to be effective in the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates, she does need an element of super strength, speed and durability to tango with the tough. Luckily, she has just that. She may not be physically strong on her own, but the power of one hundred regular arms quickly adds up. With a massive tree of hands, she was able to trap the arm of Oars, a supergiant who could allegedly pull continents. That sounds a little extreme, but he was able to punch through thick steel. Boomstick: Robin’s physical durability is top notch, even for the ridiculous standards set in the One Piece world. She can block cannonballs without flinching, has been impaled twice, and survived electrocution in excess of 30 million volts. Even more impressive, she was out for less time than Roronora Zoro, who’s practically unkillable. Wiz: It isn’t actually the voltage of an electrical attack that’s lethal, it’s the current. Yes, Robin took the attack for seven seconds and was subject to enough electricity to kill a normal person, if not burn them to the bone, but a more straightforward example of her resilience is when she survived the Ursus Shock of the Warlord Kuma, an attack which nearly obliterated an entire island. Boomstick: Robin also possesses extreme reaction speed; in her own words, the speed of her opponent means nothing to her. She can create and dissipate limbs faster than the eye can see, struck down a man who flew so fast he was invisible, can outspeed cannonfire, and even managed to catch Hakuba, one of the fastest characters in the series, with her bare hands. Wiz: For reference, Hakuba is many times quicker than a punch so fast it created an explosion through friction, clocking in at about 17 000 miles per hour. He has also caught Dellinger off guard, a man-fish hybrid with a reaction speed of less than a thousandth of a second. Boomstick: Despite this, Robin is not invincible. Logia type Devil Fruit users can evade her capture by transforming into a liquid or gaseous substance, leaving her limbs with nothing to hold on to. Also, using any type of special effect on one of Robin’s limbs creates the same effect as using it on her own body, so her ability to fight from range does not fully protect her against trickery and hax. Wiz: As a Devil Fruit User, Robin cannot swim, and rapidly loses her strength when in the water. She also has a weakness to Seastone, a special element baring the essence of the ocean; when she or any other Fruit user comes into contact with Seastone, they begin to lose their strength, and are incapable of using their powers. Boomstick: Despite her nonchalant outlook, Robin is actually fairly cocky, and will try to interrogate opponents instead of killing them outright. This has led to her being caught off guard multiple times, especially against enemies she incorrectly guesses she can stall through conversation. As a matter of fact, Robin isn’t the best at predicting new abilities, and rarely packs any sort of contingency plan in case the going gets tough. Wiz: However, she often has her crewmates at her side in order to fight off larger threats while she takes care of other operations, in particular, cannon fodder slaughter and sabotage. Her uncapped versatility makes her a huge benefit to the Straw Hat Pirates, and it is through their support that she continues to uncover the past through the Poneglyphs scattered across the world. Boomstick: And what she uncovers will no doubt change the foundation of the world. Demon or not, Robin is a badass, and should you cross her values, you’ll never know just how she will take you out. Aokiji: But after twenty years without a place of your own, I felt it was too risky to let such a dangerous bomb continue to roam freely. Truly, I felt you finally had to die. This time, I wanted to finally finish off with what happened at Ohara. Of course, there was no way I could have expected the CP9 to be defeated. Have you finally found your place? Robin: ...Yes. Aokiji: What Saul told you, whether it was wrong or right. From here on, will you show me that answer? Robin: I intend to. Aokiji: In that case, live strong. Ohara is not yet forgotten. Blake Belladonna Wiz: In the world of Remnant, society as everyone knows it revolves around interactions between three separate races. Humanity, strong, united, and prideful to a fault. The Grimm, soulless bloodthirsty creatures of unknown origin. And the Faunus, a race of humanoids possessing animal-like traits. Boomstick: Fucking furries. I thought we were done with them after we slaughtered Kuro. Wiz: Well, Boomstick, it was that condescending attitude towards the Faunus by humans that sparked years worth of civil unrest, protest, and rebellion. Despite their physical and sensory superiority to humans, the Faunus were forced to live in segregated comminutes, and were treated as second-class citizens until they finally pushed back, hoping for equality. Boomstick: They succeeded on paper, but even in the modern day, tensions were still high. No thanks to a Faunus terrorist organization whose idea of equality was the complete eradication of mankind: the White Fang. They sought peace only through bloodshed, and launched attacks on several schools, production companies, and military institutions. Because that shit’s totally going to make people respect your race more. Yeah, I’m looking at you, BLM. Wiz: However, not all Faunus viewed the world the same as these radicals. Many viewed the White Fang as traitors, and misguided perpetrators of violence. One such Faunus was Blake Belladonna. Boomstick: Much of Blake’s past is shrouded in mystery, but according to her, she was pretty much born into the White Fang. As she grew up, she was indoctrinated into the group’s beliefs of victory through violence, thanks mostly to her mentor Adam Taurus, a high-ranking White Fang official. Also her abusive ex-lover. Hate when that happens. Wiz: Blake followed the White Fang for as long as she could under the belief that she was doing the right thing. However, the needless killing of innocent people eventually caused her to turn and run away from everything she had ever known. Thus began a long lifetime of both distrust, and running away. Boomstick: Despite having pretty much no educational background, Blake was accepted into Beacon Academy, in part due to the generosity of its illuminati headmaster. She spent most of her early days reading and being antisocial, until during a training exercise she ended up partnered with the fiery brawler Yang, and overall, a member of the Huntress Team RWBY... led by Yang’s younger sister, Ruby. Wiz: The Hunters and Huntresses were elite soldiers who dedicated their lives to fighting off the Grimm, who terrorized both Man and Faunuskind. Seeking to use her abilities in the right and help bridge racial gaps without harming the innocent, Blake became one of the Academy’s top fighters, and one of the Grimm’s worst nightmares. As a cat-based Faunus, Blake likely possesses hearing and smelling capabilities thousands of times more sensitive than the average human. She also has enhanced night-vision, and could navigate her way through pitch-black areas with extreme ease using all of her senses. Boomstick: Blake may have cat ears, and not claws, but this kitty’s got claws. Wiz: Wut. Boomstick: In the form of her personal weapon, Gambol Shroud. It’s a beautiful sword-inside-a-sword which can be wielded as either one or two blades, depending on how much Blake wants to cut something up. Though the sheath is sharp, it’s undoubtedly the internal Katana that packs the real slicing power. It’s able to cut through metals as strong as the armour of an Atlesian Knight. And if that wasn’t badass enough, its hilt is a gun, because of course it is. Wiz: Every weapon in the RWBY Universe... well, almost every weapon... has an alternate ranged function which allows practitioners to switch between different styles of combat in the middle of battle. In the real world, this tactic is closely related to the Switch-Hitting boxing style, where a fighter mixes between Standard and Southpaw stances at any time during a fight. This is extremely difficult to master, and that’s without weapons; a testament to Blake’s combat skills. But even though three of four members of team RWBY take the bladed approach when it comes to melee, Blake’s niche is quite different. Boomstick: The gun appears to be a form of Glock, but in addition to bullets, it gun can fire an extremely strong grappling ribbon used for swinging over large distances, tripping opponents, or my favourite, the Fastball special. Whenever Blake’s having issues in a fight, throwing an ally at it works nearly every time. Wiz: Blake’s main mode of combat combines her acrobatic ability with fast unblockable strikes from her weapons. Through her ribbon, she can effectively throw her sword and slash at a distance, similar to Kratos of the God of War series with the added benefit of having a ranged firearm on one of her swords. The gun’s trigger can work on a timer, allowing Blake to toss it and fire it from range, either to return the blade to her faster or get in a surprise shot on an enemy fortunate enough to dodge the initial dozen slashes. Boomstick: The gun can fire at such force that Blake often uses it to increase the momentum of her blade, either striking with more force up close or throwing it as a grappling anchor. Given Gambol Shroud is classified as a “Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe”, it comes across as no surprise it is her team’s most versatile weapon. Even more so with its use of dust, allowing Blake to partially blend the abilities of her weapon with her Shadow Semblance. Wiz: The Semblance is a unique manifestation of an individual’s soul which can be brought forth through training as a sort of special ability. Boomstick’s would probably be the ability to turn everything he touches into beer. Boomstick: That’s actually my Credit Card’s semblance. Wiz: In Blake’s words, because of her inner impulses to run away, Blake’s semblance allows her to escape engagements through the use of clones, which stem from her body as if she was duplicating herself. Boomstick: So, a Shadow Clone Jutsu? Wiz: The clones are exact replicas of Blake, down to her outfit and weapon. If she manages to generate one without being seen, it can fool even well-seasoned warriors. The clones are solid, but dissipate in a cloud of smoke after a single enemy hit, but that’s still more than enough to make Blake a formidable opponent, especially in close-range. Boomstick: She appears to gain a temporary boost in speed when generating a clone, and in melee combat, she uses it to quickly run behind an opponent while leaving the doppelganger to take the blow. From what we’ve seen, she can only generate one at a time, but the ability recharges instantly, meaning she can duel against mob bosses with extreme close-quarter combat speed, leaving them hitting shadows while finding a new attack angle. She can also jump off her own clones in the air to gain extra height, so it’s likely with enough concentration, she can pull off the Game Genie Multi Jump. Wiz: Under normal circumstances, the clones are pure shadows. However, they can be manipulated through the use of dust, a crystalline source of energy with mysterious properties. Blake’s friend Weiss Schnee once gave her a set of dust vials which she could equip with Gambol Shroud to create a variety of elemental effects. Weiss’ sword does such and is capable of producing ice and fire from its blade; it’s likely Blake can do the same, but she has her own unique use as well. Boomstick: Both her semblance and the powers of dust are powered by Blake’s inner aura, so the clones and dust go hand in hand. With the right dust, Blake’s clones can take elemental forms such as fire, ice, and earth. Fire clones explode upon being hit, ice clones quickly freeze and trap anything inside them, and the earth clones are tough as stone. Wiz: The spectacular limits of Blake’s fighting style would not be possible without what’s known as her Aura. By bringing forth her soul, Blake can wear it like armour to block massive amounts of damage and heal wounds. Through her Aura, she can survive immense concussive blasts comparable to grenades, flares, and even took a laser blast so hard it punched through an armoured door. Boomstick: Once again, Blake manages to push outside of the norm with an attack likely taught to her by Adam, where she can channel her Aura into Gambol Shroud and increase its cutting ability. Through this technique, Adam’s blade gains so much power in a single strike that he can slice through practically anything, even materials his and Blake’s blades couldn’t scratch under basic conditions. One time, Blake even channeled her aura into a god damn sausage link which she whipped so hard she sent someone flying. Wiz: Note that this was a high school food fight... you know what, never mind. Even with the context, that’s still borderline absurd. Boomstick: All of this comes together to make one of the toughest cat-girls around. What Blake lacks in physical power, she more than makes up for in her speed and cutting edge technology. Blake can dodge and deflect bullets, land perfectly from 100-foot falls, outrun mechs, and once sliced through an entire barrage of rockets. Wiz: Fresh after they were fired, but a rocket can reach speeds of up to 295 meters per second; Blake managed to destroy eight of them with separate attacks. She’s also managed to kill an Ursa in one blow, a species which can survive multiple hits from Yang Xiao Long, resident powerhouse. Boomstick: She’s also an expert in stealth and infiltration, provided personal worries and vendettas don’t get in her way. Wiz: True. Blake is not a perfect warrior. Though she is often instrumental in executing her team’s unique strategies, she can recklessly rush into battle should an enemy make her mad enough, even if they possess superior skill. Despite her high level of cooperative success, Blake can abandon her allies to pursue her own goals if she deems it necessary, whether out of anger, cockiness... Boomstick: Or regret and south-loathing. What, too soon? Wiz: As powerful as it is, her Aura can only last so long, and gets depleted with more hardcore use. Once it’s gone, Blake can be hurt the same as any normal human, and takes a huge dive in her combat capabilities given that so much of her power extends from her soul. Boomstick: She also has a weakness to laser pointers, tuna, and dogs, but I have yet to meet a character who packs those as contingency plans. She may have a world-gone-shit to go through, but Blake will stop at nothing to achieve the peace of mind the Faunus have desired for so long. And she has everything she needs to make it happen. Blake: We were being treated like equals, but not out of respect. Out of fear. So, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence. Instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress. So here I am, a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little, black bow. Interlude Wiz: All right, the combatants are set. Let's end this debate once and for all. Boomstick: IT'S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLE!!! Death Battle! (From Shadows, 0:00-0:26) A wind blows softly through a thick forest of cherry blossom trees, scattering pink petals down onto the earth. Across these leaves walks Nico Robin, a bag slung over her shoulder and a map in her hands. Behind her, hidden in the crowns of the trees, a mysterious blur of black leaps across the branches, following her. After following the map for a short distance, Robin looks up and folds it away as she steps into a large clearing in the forest. The grove is covered by hundreds of pink flowers growing out of the ground, and in the center, a large stone rests with a large, burning torch sticking out of it. On the stone is a rough painting of a wolf’s head over three deep cut marks; the monument serves as a sign of victory. (From Shadows, 0:13-1:11) What Robin is more interested in, however, is on the ground. Kneeling down in front of the monument, she brushes away a layer of flowers, sticks her hands into the dirt, and raises up a slab of stone covered in strange writings. In the shadows of the leaves on the edge of the grove, a pair of amber eyes narrow angrily in the dark as Robin brushes off the slate and places it on the monument. Robin: Well, it’s certainly a language I’ve never seen before. I wonder what secrets it holds. Before Robin can act further, she detects movement behind her and leaps to the side as Blake Belladonna flies out of the trees. While shooting through the air, Blake throws her weapon, Gambol Shroud, and it imbeds itself in the rock of the monument. Using her ribbon as a grapple to pull herself in, Blake flies towards it, and at the last second, draws her Katana out of Gambol Shroud’s sheath, twisting in the air, and slicing the monument into three pieces. The stone shatters, the slab of writing falls to the ground and cracks, and the torch’s flame falls to the ground, where the Faunus warrior stamps it out. Robin: You! What have you done! Blake: This place has nothing to do with you. Don’t question me! Blake: You just destroyed a valuable piece of this land’s history! Have you no respect for the past? Blake: Not a past built on unjust bloodshed and terror! At this place, five years ago, this monument was built to celebrate the destruction of a military outpost. It celebrated the deaths of sixty innocent people. No matter how important to history it is, I will not allow it to stand! Robin: ...I see. You wish to declare war. Robin raises her hands and crosses them in front of her face. Sensing tension, Blake raises her sword and gets ready to fight. Robin: So young, so frustrated, and so naive. The past is our key to understanding the world; what you have done, no matter your intention, is unforgivable. FIGHT!!! (From Shadows, 1:35-2:38) Robin: Six fleurs! Two arms pop out of Blake’s sides and grab her shoulders, pinning them behind her back, while a chain made of four arms rises out of the ground behind her. Blake: What? Unable to move, the arms grab Blake by the back of the neck and slam her to the ground; three more chains of arms grow out of the field, and the four begin to swing wildly, smacking Blake on the ground. After taking some hard hits, Blake rolls away quickly, leaving a clone behind her to take the next hit. It dissipates upon contact, but Blake is free and on her feet, ready to charge at Robin. Robin: A power user! Blake runs, and Robin swings one of her arms at her as she approaches. She creates a chain out of her hand about ten arms long, but Blake leaps over the whip and slides on the ground to avoid its second attack. She aims to slice Robin’s feet, but Robin jumps over her as she slides underneath. By spawning another pair of legs to use as stilts, Robin both stomps on Blake’s face as well as propels herself out of range. Blake gets up and clicks the hilt of Gambol Shroud before she throws her Katana at Robin, who crosses her arms and closes her eyes. A few hands pop out of the Katana’s blade and ribbon as it launches forward, and flap like butterfly wings; the blade’s course is redirected and it flies harmlessly to Robin’s side. Two hands pop out of Blake’s arms and snatch her weapons from her before she can react, and a chain of hands relay the weapons along towards Robin. Blake watches shocked at the bizarre power, and soon, Gambol Shroud is far out of reach. Robin: I think that’s quite enough. Blake: Grrh! Blake runs at Robin despite her lack of a weapon, and upon Robin crossing her arms, hops into the air. She leaves a clone behind to take Robin’s arms spawning and grabbing its ankles, and somersaults over to the pirate before throwing a punch. Robin deflects it, and Blake follows up with more punches and kicks. Though creation of extra limbs allows Robin to catch and block all the strikes, Blake’s superior strength forces her backwards. Eventually, one of Blake’s kicks catches Robin on the side of the head, making her flinch and unable to block the next kick directly to the face. Robin staggers and Blake crouches down, grabbing the tail end of her ribbon off the ground. A few arms rise out of the flowers and pin her arm down, as Blake sees Robin recovered, but her wrist is still free enough to give the ribbon a flick. A small wave travels down it and lifts the Katana a slight ways into the air; upon this motion, the gun on its hilt fires a round, striking Robin in the leg from behind. Robin stumbles and Blake yanks her Katana back, whipping it towards the sheath to catch it by magnetism. Upon retrieving both of her weapons, she does a backflip in the air, kicking Robin in the chin, and throws her sheath into the ground. By firing the Katana, she gains spontaneous momentum in the middle of the air, and kicks Robin in the chest so hard they both fly backwards. Robin rolls on the ground and picks herself up while Blake lands on her feet next to a large rock at the edge of the clearing. She stabs both swords of Gambol Shroud into the boulder and picks it up, whips it around her head with her ribbon, and throws it at Robin. (Wanderlust, 0:20-1:15) Seeing it incoming, Robin spins her arms and creates eighteen more forearms stemming out of her elbows. With the two makeshift shields, Robin braces for and catches the boulder; she grits her teeth at the force it brings, but manages to crush it by clutching it with all twenty hands. As the rock crumbles to dust, Robin looks ahead, but can’t spot Blake anywhere. Robin: Ojos Fleur. Robin crosses her arms, and closes her eyes. In the thick Cherry Blossom Forest, Blake us darting between the tree tops, hoping to gain a surprise attack on Robin from outside the grove. As she passes over a tree, an eyeball grows out of its bark, and looks around. A hundred other eyes all open up on trees throughout the forest, and Robin stands still in the grove, watching through all of them. In a vision, Blake’s leg runs through the sight of one, and Robin’s real eyes open with a fierce glare. Blake tries to leap of the branch, but the sudden spawning of an arm trips her up by grabbing her leg; she begins to fall out of the tree, but six arms spawn out of the trunk and grab onto her falling body before repeatedly slamming her against the bark. Blake kicks herself off the tree to escape, and a large crack is heard. The tree is ripped from its roots by a massive hand growing out of the ground, and it’s raised into the air in front of a terrified Blake, who stands still amidst the colossal shadow. The hand, with Robin visible in the clearing behind it, throws the tree at Blake, and it crushes her into the ground... only to let out a small amount of smoke when it lands. The real Blake runs out from behind another tree and charges into the clearing. Robin: What? Dozens of arms and legs appear out of the ground and try to swing at Blake as she runs, but she leaps over all of them and avoids any hits through use of her clones, no matter how fast they appear and strike. Upon reaching Robin herself, she jumps into the air. Robin grows two large arms from the ground to grab her, but a whirl of a chamber in Gambol Shroud produces a blue vial which fires into the air as Blake generates another clone. The resulting ice traps Robin’s limbs in place, and while she manages to free them, it’s too late; Blake wraps her ankles around Robin’s neck, and tosses Gambol Shroud’s katana into the air. A shot fires off, firing the Katana into another tree, and Blake yanks on the ribbon connecting it to her, pulling herself towards the tree while dragging Robin through the air by her ankles. Twisting in the air, Blake smashes Robin into the tree trunk, cracking her neck, bashes her on the back of the head with the side of her sheath, and whips her Katana out of the tree while she falls to the ground. Blake rockets out of the air down to the ground, leaving a clone behind her, and uses her blades to carve a deep X into Robin’s back. (Trish’s Theme, 0:19-1:49) Robin: AAUGH! Amidst the shower of blood coming from her back, eight arms spawn out of the ground and grab onto Blake, pinning her in a hold. A whole clone of Robin forms out of her body, and grabs Blake from behind with the assistance of the extra limbs. Blake struggles, but can’t get free as the Robins get up and suplex her to the ground, cracking her back in the process. Upon the impact, Blake glows a bright grey colour for a split second before being tossed to the ground. Robin somersaults away and her clone fades into the air, along with the extra limbs. To Robin’s interest, Blake picks herself up. Robin: That attack would have broken your spine. You have something interesting protecting you, but it only seems temporary. I wonder how long can will last? Blake: Long enough! Robin: Ah, so it can run out. I was bluffing. Ticked off, Blake runs forward, and slashes, but just before her blade lands, the Robin in front of her fades away in a trail of flower petals. Blake stops and turns around, spotting the real Robin running up a tree, by creating a stairway or hands wrapping around its trunk. Blake leaps into the air and slices the tree in half; the top half and Robin fly back further out of the clearing, and Blake jumps off the falling branches to try and get in a solid hit. The Faunus approaches Robin in the air, but at the last second, Robin creates a set of wings made of hands off of her back, and with a single flap, flies higher into the air to evade Blake’s attack. Robin’s wings fade and she swings her arm at Blake, creating a whip with her powers. Still in the air, Blake creates a clone and darts out of the way, and proceeds to avoid Robin’s next few swings and kicks in the same fashion, leaving her clones to get hit. Robin tires of this quickly, and switches her strategy by spawning arms off of Blake’s own body. They grab her arms and legs, preventing her from making any more moves, and the two fall to the surface; Robin lands perfectly on a treetop, and creates two large arms out of two nearby tree trunks that catch Blake out of the air. They throw Blake up to where another pair of arms catches her, which throws her to a third, which throws her high into the air, in line with Robin’s sight over the tree canopy. Robin: Gigantesco Mano! Two absolutely massive arms break through the treetops on either side of Blake; as she reaches the apex of her flight, they open up their hands and clap forward, sandwiching Belladonna in between them. All is still for a second until the line between the two palms begins to glow a bright orange. The hands are forced a tiny bit open while the real Robin clutches her hands in pain and looks at the palms; they’re charred black and lightly burnt. True enough, from out of the gap in the giant hands, Blake flies out, blades at the ready, with the tail end of an explosion right behind her. She cocks her gun and three red dust vials fall out while she loads regular rounds, and she flies over the trees while firing several shots at Robin’s location. Robin leaps out of the tree as the branches behind her get reduced to splinters; Blake flies overhead and creates a clone above Robin which instantly takes on the properties of a stone golem. It falls through the air and crushes the tree, throwing Robin off balance. Quickly, she creates a spider net out of her arms and rolls down it to the safety of the ground, now in the middle of a thick blanket of trees. She gets up, crosses her arms, and the view zooms through the forest, with multiple copies of Robin’s ears popping out of trees. Upon hearing Blake touch down, Robin prepares her next attack. (Come With Me, 3:16-4:52) Robin: Cent Fleurs Big Tree! A hundred arms grow out of the ground in front of her and mesh together, creating a massive pillar of flesh that far outgrows the forest canopy. With a wild swing, it sweeps the ground and blows several dozen trees out of its path, knocking Blake down out of her cover in the process. With a clear field in between them, the arm tree falls apart as the arms dig into the ground, then surface in the form of a wave of limbs that speeds towards Blake. Blake tries to outrun then, but they eventually catch up, grasping onto the legs of both her and the clone she tries to use to escape. Blake falls and the arms overwhelm her, punching and slapping her. Two grow out of the ground by her head, lock fingers, and swing down, bashing Blake on the head with a double-fist punch. The arms around her pick her up and hold her in the air, and Robin walks towards her, arms crossed. Robin: Ready to surrender? Or are you just going to run away again? No matter where you run, I will catch you. Blake, struggling in Robin’s grasp, gasps at these words. In her mind, a flashback plays back to when she was a young member of the White Fang. Lying beaten on the ground, Adam Taurus is standing over her, sheathing his sword. Adam: No matter where you run, I will catch you. After a rapid flash of memories including Adam destroying a Government machine, falling into the horizon on a train, killing a beacon student and slicing off Yang’s arm, Blake regains her attention in the present and grits her teeth. Blake: I... will not... run! Blake, unseen by Robin, grasps the hilt of her sword and swings it; only just in time toes Robin release her grip, but the blade still nicks the palms of several of the receding hands. The cuts appear on Robin’s real hands as well, and though she clutches them back, Blake can see the damage done. Blake: You don’t seem so invincible yourself. Robin twirls her arm, and spawns several copies from her elbow before they spin around and return to her hand; a taunt. Blake rushes forward and Robin splits into two copies that evade Blake, passing to each side of her. Each begins to punch, kick, and slap with the assistance of several limbs spawning from the ground, but Blake flips over each one, not taking a single hit, though a few clones are necessary to dodge. Blake’s own attacks don’t help much, as whenever she tries to aim her gun or slash her sword, an arm grows off of it and yanks it off course. After a while, just before Blake fires, an arm grows out of her chest and grabs Gambol Shroud’s gun, pointing it upwards. Blake whips her head back and narrowly avoids shooting herself through the head, before forcing Robin’s arm off of her and backflipping away. Robin abandons her clone, picks up a large handful of cherry blossom leaves from the ground, and throws them into the air, where they catch onto the wind and fly in a shower above Blake. Robin crosses her arms and concentrates, and out of each and every leaf comes one of Robin’s duplicated legs, thundering down onto the ground with the force of cannonfire and the speed of rain. Blake evades most of the stomps, sacrificing more clones in the process, leaps up above the falling leaves, and whips them away with her ribbon, robbing Robin of the advantageous surface. The leaves fly back towards Robin and blind her, though she opens an eye on the other side of the ground to see Blake use Gambol Shroud to catapult herself back into the forest clearing. Robin walks outside slowly while Blake raises Gambol Shroud, both blades joined together. She concentrates, and a grey glow escapes from her body into the blade, covering it in a grey light before she slams it into the ground with tremendous speed. A grey burst of energy escapes and carves through the forest floor, scattering leaves and dirt out of its path as it speeds towards Robin. The pirate leaps out of the way as the energy crashes and explodes behind her, and looks up to see two Blakes falling out of the sky, weapons at the ready. Robin: More copies? Hmph. (Ghost Love Score, 7:43-7:57) Two arms grow out of each Blake and clutch their necks; the fake disappears with a puff of smoke, while the real one is thrown off balance. Just before Blake hits the ground, Robin creates a massive arm that rises from the surface and punches Blake one hundred feet into the air. Blake realigns herself in the air, and after avoiding several hand butterflies sent her way, sticks out her blade and carves it into a tree as she falls, slowing her descent. Robin isn’t finished. Robin: Mil Fleur: Gigantesco Mano! (Ghost Love Score, 7:59-9:39) Two legs comparable to those of giants erupt from the ground, taking up nearly the entire clearing. The thighs anchored in the ground, they bend at the knee and begin to stomp down on Blake, who runs to evade them. After dodging a few slow, powerful attacks, she leaps up and carves a deep gash into one of the ankles. Robin’s body takes the hit and she staggers, but she keeps her pose and concentration. The legs continue to attack, and Blake evades through the use of her ribbon and her clones, darting back and forth. Robin: Hmm, I thought you were done running. Blake (Internally): She’s right. I can’t win like this! I need to get to her real body; she leaves it wide open! Blake throws her sheath at a nearby tree, swinging around it to bring herself back onto the ground, running back towards a giant leg. Bracing herself as it raises upwards, she leaps into the air. The foot comes crashing down, and Blake creates a clone in the air, leaping off of it to gain more height. The clone falls to the ground and gets stomped on, and a small amount of smoke escapes under the sole of Robin’s foot. Blake lands on the lower leg and begins to run up it, both swords extended outwards. No matter how much the massive leg shakes and twists, Blake keeps her balance, and speeds up towards the knee so fast she starts to become blurry. As she reaches the highest point, the leg disappears in a shower of cherry blossom petals; Blake is now high in the air above Robin, both swords at the ready. Gritting her teeth, she throws an arm and whips her ribbon in front of her, carrying Gambol Shroud’s Katana along with it. The Katana strikes deep into the ground in front of Robin and Blake pulls on it, launching herself towards the ground with similar speed to her ascent. Robin stands still with awe as Blake brings her Katana back to her, and begins to spin in the air while she falls towards her enemy. Both swords at the ready, she comes crashing down on Robin’s location while swinging two furious slashes. The attacks never land. In a split second, Blake finds herself covered in arms generating from the surface of her body. Four of them hold her arms behind her back, six grab her by the legs and hold her in the air, two are gripping her by her neck, and two are covering her mouth. An additional two have grabbed both of her hands, rendering her incapable of using either part of her weapon. Robin stands calmly in front of her, having not even flinched at Blake’s attack. Robin: Your speed is nothing to me. Robin creates a series of gestures with her real arms, and the limbs holding Blake reposition themselves. They still hold Blake immobile in the air, but force her arms in front of her, making her grip on her Katana while she drops the Sheath of Gambol Shroud. The arms force Blake to hold her weapon with outstretched arms, with the blade pointed into her own neck. Blake’s eyes grow wide with fear, while Robin’s grow narrow. Robin: But the past is everything to me. Seize fleurs. The arms around Blake all tighten their grip while Blake struggles to get free. Robin: Clutch. The arms holding Blake’s arms and weapon pull back, forcing Blake to stab Gambol Shroud into her own neck. With the hands covering her mouth, she can neither scream nor cry out in pain as the blade pierces through her and out the back of her neck; after a second of silence and eye contact, blood begins to pour out of the wound, and Blake’s wide eyes roll back into her head. Robin exits her stance and all the limbs disappear, leaving Blake’s body to fall to the ground among a flurry of flower petals. Nico Robin gives the Faunus’ body one last look before turning around and heading back towards the clearing. K.O!!! Robin uses multiple arms to piece the stone tablet back together as best as she can. Blake’s body fades away in the form of shining black ashes. Results Boomstick: Oh shit, here we go. Wiz: Blake possessed a number of advantages; for example, the cutting power of Gambol Shroud helped mitigate Robin’s durability showings to explosive and blunt attacks. Her aura and wide array of abilities also helped her stay in the fight longer, but she couldn’t win in the end. Boomstick: Robin’s been fighting for her life for over twenty years, which is longer than Blake’s been alive, and has experienced opponents way more diverse. For two of those years, she spent all of her time developing her fruit’s abilities for the sole purpose of becoming stronger, during which time she managed to clone herself; Blake’s techniques of generating copies to run away were nothing new. Robin’s own clones, being able to move and attack, were without a doubt the better factor. Wiz: Robin had superior range and battlefield control; nowhere on the field was safe for Blake, and her ability to strike from range was heavily limited by Robin’s technique of guiding attacks away through her hands. Boomstick: However, Blake outclassed Robin in close quarters, and had chances to slash away Robin’s limbs to indirectly damage her. The key to her win was being able to outspeed Robin and catch her off guard. Unfortunately, she couldn’t. Not by a longshot. Wiz: Blake is fast, but speed on its own is nigh-useless against Nico Robin. She has caught enemies with super speed multiple times, intercepted Luffy himself, reacted to cannonballs, and disarmed entire groups of people before they even reacted. Most important was her subduing of Hakuba, the alternate form of the pirate Cavendish. Boomstick: Hakuba has outsped explosion-generating punches, but his most insane feat comes from when he fought in a gladiator-style battle royale. Upon being unleashed, he cut down thirty superpowered individuals scattered across the ring with such speed that he appeared to be launching every hit simultaneously, and nobody in the audience saw what happened. Wiz: This is a speed that nobody in the RWBY universe has managed to match; even the likes of Adam and Ruby haven’t been able to dispatch cannon fodder that fast. Even Blake's missile-destroying feat was done while under the effects of a time dilation by her teammate. Robin’s feat of not only catching Hakuba, but also rendering him immobile without breaking a sweat, proves her reflexes far exceed anything Blake could put forth. This is made magnitudes worse when considering Robin’s ability to disarm Blake of Gambol Shroud, and catch both her and her clones simultaneously to eliminate risk of hitting a wrong target. Boomstick: Yes, Robin has been caught off guard a few times before, but under special conditions where Blake didn’t fit the bill. The Faunus didn’t have the special abilities of poison gas or age control that have rendered Robin immobile, Robin really didn’t need to keep Blake alive, and because she had no way to change out of a physical form, there was no need for Robin to try anything riskier than a neck snap. Wiz: Since Aura has not yet been shown to protect against internal damage such as broken bones, it’s possible Robin could have ended this fight the second it begun. Even if Blake could survive, it wouldn’t be for long, and she had nothing to use reliably against Robin to prolong her fate. Boomstick: Blake tried her hardest, but lost the Gambol with her life. Wiz: The winner is Nico Robin. Do you agree with the results of Nico Robin vs Blake Belladonna? Yes No The result was right, the reasoning was not Next Time Boomstick: NEXT TIME, ON DEATH BATTLE! Welcome to the psycho circus. Welcome to the show. Category:What-If? Death Battles Category:MP999 Category:'Girls Only' themed Death Battles Category:'Hero vs. Hero' Themed Death Battle Category:Anime vs Internet Shows Themed Death Battles Category:Completed What-If? Death Battles Category:What-If? Death Battles completed in 2016 Category:Fights made for commemoration Category:Death Battles with a returning DBX combatant